A/N: A clarification for the last chapter - yes, Sakura was already in the past, but we didn't know how she got there, and Kakashi didn't know her. This chapter takes place in the present, or before she went to the past.

I have certain thoughts about this chapter, but I'd rather see what others think of it. Hopefully it'll just be me. :X

Rewrite

Ryou's Attack

In Present Time

The only reason Tsunade still found herself alive was because she still had a thing or two to teach her apprentice. As much as she wanted to, the pink-haired girl couldn't find it in her to kill her mentor just yet. It'd be a waste of knowledge, in Sakura's opinion. She would have liked to at least give the Sannin a good kick, but it was all or nothing. If Sakura left things unfinished, the busty blond would have her ass instead.

Sakura wasn't usually one to have such violent thoughts (or at least that's what she liked to tell herself), but this was unreasonable! Team Seven had just come back from a week long mission and were immediately being assigned another.

"I apologize for such short notice," she said in a tone that suggested she didn't really care either way. "But all other shinobi that qualify for this mission are currently on duty."

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura began. "We saw Kurenai-sensei's team arrive on our way here." She had lost a lot of sleep on the mission, and all she wanted was some rest. Doubtlessly the other team was also worn out, but it was every ninja for himself. "Hinata and Kiba's abilities would be more suitable for tracking-"

"Kurenai's team only just got back." Tsunade interrupted, completely disregarding the fact that they had as well. "Don't try to blow this off."

"But we-"

"This mission is not just about tracking. Rumor has it the target is powerful. A bunch of insects and a dog will not be enough to properly complete this task. You need strength." Tsunade gave Naruto and Sasuke a meaningful look. "I can't say you two are lacking in that area."

What she said was true. But she had only meant for it to be flattery. Had only meant for it to stroke Naruto and Sasuke's egos and get them to accept. They both fell for her trap all too nicely. From that point on Kakashi and Sakura had no say in the matter, though Kakashi hadn't said much since their arrival, anyway.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirped, suddenly cheery. Funny, Sakura thought, considering he had complained the most when Tsunade had first mentioned the job. "We have to make sure we beat this guy to a pulp once we find him. We can't let that Kiba bastard fail the mission."

A 'hmph' and a smirk was Sasuke's way of agreeing.

"Nobody's had a chance to unpack yet, I assume?" Tsunade asked. "Take whatever you already have. You are to leave immediately."

It was then Sakura decided she hated this woman.

So now here she was, waiting for Pakkun to find the target and for Kakashi to give them the signal. All because her lazy drinker of a master didn't have the patience to send someone out to fetch the other group. Team Kakashi had bad timing.

She had been crouching against a tree for so long that her legs had gone numb. Now she found herself trying to unfold one of them in front of her without making any noise. This proved to be a horribly difficult task with the autumn leaves threatening to crunch under the weight of her butt any second. She was risking giving away their location to the enemy, but if she stayed down in that position any longer, she was going to hurt someone, and she didn't care if it was someone from her own team.

A small eternity passed before she succeeded. She let her head fall back gently against the tree, and let out a low groan of impatience. Now if she could just stretch out the other one, maybe she'd be able to feel her feet again…

Tsunade hadn't been very clear with the mission details. It involved a time-jumping shinobi named Ryou who had been causing trouble and had made an appearance in the forest just outside the main village gates sometime that night. It all sounded fruity to Sakura. If he were that great he would have already warped his hide into the next century, where he'd probably be forgotten and not have people on his tail. She couldn't help but think their target was spreading rumors to create a name for himself. Time-jumping her numb foot.

Only a ridiculously high amount of willpower was keeping Sakura awake. Naruto had to pick that night to keep uncharacteristically silent. What was she supposed to do without the blond's complaints to keep her distracted?

"Sakura."

Said kunoichi jumped, effectively making the leaves crunch and a twig snap quite loudly.

Crap, she thought. After all that careful work...

She snapped her head towards the approaching Copy Nin. "What?!" She yelled out, no longer caring for their secrecy. He had been the first to break the silence.

"Naruto and Sasuke are with the target," Kakashi said, now standing beside her.

"What?!" She repeated, jumping up to her feet, which were now painfully regaining feeling. After all that waiting she wouldn't even get to be part of the action? "Why didn't you tell me!"

Sakura started leaping from tree to tree towards the location where she now sensed Naruto and Sasuke's unmasked chakra. Being so close to the village she hadn't recognized their signatures sooner. There were too many shinobi in the area.

"I called you over the radio twice after sending out the signal, but you didn't respond," he told her, easily keeping pace.

Well, that would explain why he had personally come to pick her up. And why Naruto had been so quiet. She should have known it was too good to be true. Sakura stopped for a moment while she yanked the communication device off her neck. It was turned on, alright, and tuned to the correct channel, too. But Kakashi, now looming over her, seemed to disagree.

He reached across her chest to run a thumb over the wheel of the radio. "We're on channel five."

"Five?" Sakura hissed. Kakashi wanted to take a step back for safety, but there was unfortunately no space left on the small tree branch they stood on. "You specifically told me four!"

Kakashi blinked at her and scratched right below his ear. He was tempted to actually stick a finger in there and comfort his throbbing eardrum, but he suspected that would only infuriate her more.

"I don't recall saying that," He began carefully. "But – well, the numbers can be easy to confuse, seeing as they both start with the same letter and-"

Kakashi decided not to finish the sentence as he took a look at her face. Sakura glowered at him, slowly crushing the innocent radio in her fist. He gave a small cough.

"You did it on purpose!"

"Did not," Kakashi replied in mock hurt.

"This is the fifth mission in a row that I don't get to take any part in." The kunoichi said in a dangerously calm voice.

"The first three missions had nothing to do with me," he said defensively.

Up until now Sakura hadn't thought that fourth mission had anything to do with him either. She had blamed Naruto and Sasuke for getting the missions over with before she could even reach the battle sites. But before she could react to this new piece of information Kakashi resumed talking.

"If we hurry up you might still be able to catch him while he's conscious. You could get a couple of kicks in." And with that, he leapt to the next tree.

By the time Kakashi and Sakura got there only half a minute later, Naruto had already pinned the now struggling target to the ground and appeared to be absolutely pleased with himself. He also looked positively comfortable on his spot on the man's back. Sasuke was standing nearby looking, as usual, inconceivably bored. With that look on his face it was impossible to tell he had almost gotten stabbed in the gut a mere minute ago, or that he was part of the reason why this section of the forest now had a new clearing.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan!" The blond cried out. "You shoulda seen it! We got him down so fast!"

He grinned up widely at both of them, expecting some sort of praise. A quick nod from older man seemed to do the job. Naruto pushed himself off the ground, but not before giving Ryou a good rap on a particularly sensitive point on the back of the head. This successfully caused him to stop his struggling, deciding to instead place his efforts in something more significant. Like maintaining his consciousness.

"Idiot." Sasuke mumbled. "You completely forgot to watch out for his hands. I had to remind you. Twice."

Had Sakura not been so busy sulking over her recent inactivity, she might have wondered what exactly they were talking about. But instead she now stood next to the man's side, nudging him in the ribs with her toe.

"Stop..." Ryou wheezed in a tone that failed to come out as threatening and menacing. "Stop!"

She considered giving him a good round of kicks like Kakashi had so usefully suggested, but it was just no fun if he wasn't able to fight back. Not to mention it was pitiful enough watching him try to pull himself away from her infiltrating foot. The so called time-jumping ninja was moving away from Sakura in good resemblance of a flopping fish.

No, there was definitely no point in further humiliating him.

"Done with him already?" Kakashi asked, appearing beside her. "No pummeling bodies into the ground? No ripping out intestines?"

That brought him back to life. Ryou threw Sakura an alarmed look and began moving away from her with renewed strength.

"If anyone's intestines are getting ripped out they're going to be yours," she informed him.

"Such kindness," he muttered. "But I'm afraid most of my intestines are already gone." He said this with a small frown and such a sullen tone that made Sakura wonder whether he was serious or not. She threw him a concerned look, but Kakashi only smiled down at her and gave her a pat on the shoulder before stepping over Ryou's body and making his way towards the other two members of their team.

Sakura blinked at his back and decided it would only serve him right to be missing half of his digestive system. It was all his fault she hadn't gotten in on any of the action! She glared at Kakashi's back furiously, hoping the intensity of her stare would turn the red swirl on the back of his vest ablaze and set him on fire. If he had just told her the right channel! Those seven hours of waiting for nothing. She could have just stayed home in bed. Sakura began muttering under her breath, insulting each member of their team without their noticing.

Paying no mind to the infuriated kunoichi, the jonin was currently busy staring uninterestedly at his two male students argue over what had taken place during the battle. They seemed to agree upon the fact that the Uchiha had more than once almost been at the receiving end of a few kunai throws, but while Naruto swore it was due to dying reflexes, Sasuke attributed it to being a result of trying to save the loudmouth's skin.

Sakura heaved another sigh. Her role in this mission, she supposed, would be to get these two to shut up before their beat-up paycheck managed to gather up enough energy to run away. Sakura inhaled deeply, preparing for her outburst.

The earsplitting sound of Sakura's voice reached the four men's ears. Her actual words hadn't gotten to any of them because of the pair's squabbling, but that hardly mattered. It had had the desired effect.

Just as they shut up Sakura felt a hand harshly grip her ankle. She felt a bit of joy burst through her. She now had a reason to kick the man! That joy left her when she saw the chakra glow from the Ryou's hands transfer to her ankle. Sakura didn't feel its effects, but judging by the man's sneer and the horror-struck look on her teammates' faces as they yelled out her name, it had to be bad.

"You dropped your guard, girl," Ryou laughed, his voice suddenly sounding remarkably strong.

"What the hell!" she cried out. At the last word she gave him one good chakra filled kick in the side of the stomach, sending him rolling away. But his look of triumph somehow stayed put through his look of pain. How she would've loved to give him another one in the face, but Sakura now found she couldn't move.

"It's begun," he muttered with a satisfied smile.

"Sakura-chan!"

Naruto leapt towards her but didn't get far before Kakashi grabbed him.

"Don't touch her! You'll only end up going with her!"

"That's the damn point!" Naruto snarled. He kept struggling under Kakashi's hold, but his grip was too firm.

"Naruto, don't! It won't do any good!" She cried out, but he didn't seem to hear. He continued to kick around and shout at Kakashi to release him. She wanted to move back and put some space between her and her teammates, but it was like trying to will her hair to grow muscles. She simply couldn't detect any part of her body.

Somehow in the back of her mind Sakura had registered what was happening to her, but it still hadn't sunk in. It was a good thing, too. Had she truly realized she was about to travel through time and end up in some unknown date all on her own, she might have asked Kakashi to allow the blond to tag along.

Sasuke looked liable to grab her any second, as well. As indifferent as he always looked, he was bound to have some sort of attachment to his teammates. Kakashi cast him a worried glance, not sure what he would do if he decided to go for it as well. It was hard enough keeping the now orange-glowing Jinchuuriki down. Luckily for Kakashi, the Uchiha decided to make himself of more use. He suddenly appeared beside Ryou and forced him to his feet. His sharingan was aflame, and he was spitting threats and orders into the man's face.

Sakura was surprised when Kakashi released Naruto. Even further surprised when the blond turned to shout straight in their teacher's face, rather than make his way towards her like he had attempted earlier. It was when Kakashi's eyes looked in her direction but stared somewhere behind her rather than at her when she realized she was no longer really there. But she could still see them. Sort of. Everything was just starting to become a bit blurry.

Alright, so maybe the whole time thing wasn't total bull. And this guy could make others travel around, too, not just himself. Before Sakura felt herself completely fade away, one thought went through her mind.

Well, fuck.

Sakura opened her eyes with a start. She was lying on the grass, somewhere she was sure was still the forest. She'd been here enough times to recognize it, and she was pretty sure this was the same location she had been in seconds earlier, except that it now had trees that hadn't been completely destroyed by a series of Chidori and Rasengan attacks. Sakura was surprised to find that she hadn't lost consciousness, only gotten astonishingly dizzy. Her eyes had also failed her for a minute.

And now her body felt utterly screwed and disoriented. A bit earlier the sky had started brightening to signify morning was on its way, the trees had been for the most part leafless, and the night had been a bit cool. What she currently saw was darkness that hinted it was just past midnight, trees with green leaves that looked very much alive, and it was warm enough for her to know it was spring. It wasn't often the environment changed so drastically in a matter of seconds. She had reason to feel a bit out of whack.

The medic nin understood what had happened, and the sudden change in surroundings only served to confirm it, but for some reason she couldn't find it in her to be nervous. But that didn't mean she wasn't pissed.

Her fist connected with the ground and created a meter long crack.

"Damn it!" she cried out to the trees, pushing herself into a sitting position.

But she knew they'd find a way to get her back. She had three of Konoha's best ninja on her side. Naruto could sprout a few tails and beat the culprit around a bit, Kakashi could go all Mangekyou and send a few body parts off to multiple dimensions until Ryou gave in and accepted to help them. And if worse came to worst, she also had an Uchiha who had undeniably proven he could hold grudges. The man didn't stand a chance.

Sakura sighed and ran fingers through her hair. At this point she was more worried about her friends than herself. They'd worry about her and blame themselves (at least Naruto and Kakashi would), and wouldn't know for sure if she was alright. She had seen the torn look Kakashi had given her as he held Naruto back. He wanted to help her as much as the fox, and it pained him not to be able to. But Sakura understood perfectly well that having one of them disappear along with her would be of no use. They would be of more help in their own time, where they'd have the most up to date information about Ryou. That was assuming she was now in the past. Either that or she was well a couple hundred years into the future since those tall trees would have needed a lot of time to grow after being so ruthlessly destroyed.

Judging from her teammates' behavior, the three had already known about how Ryou's abilities worked, and more importantly, that they were actually the real deal. The only time Kakashi could have given them the information was when they had been communicating by radio, which she hadn't been correctly tuned to.

Sakura's arm shot out to the side, slapping an innocent tree with the back of her hand.

She was sure he had said channel four!

There wasn't much she could do now. She knew she would not be able to knew anything until morning, and she was still tired from all the lack of sleep. The warmth of the night was only making her more heavy-eyed. She'd figure out what to do later. For now, she welcomed rest with open arms, right there on the ground.

The village gate was beginning to come into view. Sakura had made it there in record slow time. She hadn't been able to bring herself to stop dragging her feet. After getting some sleep and letting her mind rest a bit, she was now thinking more clearly, which only meant she could now see the gravity of the situation.

Sakura doubted that even Kakashi's aresenal of a thousand or more jutsu had any time-related ones stored around. Sasuke's grudges could get older brothers killed, but she doubted they would get her back home, and Naruto could grow as many tails as he wanted for all the good it would do. Sakura imagined that even if tortured, any self-respecting villain would never agree to help her return.

Letting herself get too caught up in her emotions would do no good. She knew her friends were now doing whatever they could to help, and she at least owed them to try her best over on her side as well. She took a deep breath and beat her dread and worry into submission. She had no time for wallowing in misery. Sakura would not sit around and wait to be rescued. With new determination, she began picking her feet up again.

When she brought a dirty hand up to brush hair away from her face, new thoughts came to mind. Albeit not very good ones.

She needed a shower. A long one at that. And shelter. She was not going to live without indoor plumbing. She also needed a change of clothes. At least her undergarments. She was a kunoichi and was used to getting dirty, but unlike Naruto seemed to think, it didn't mean you had to completely forgo hygiene.

Sakura absolutely refused to stay in this state of filth. She briefly wondered if she'd have to put her ninja skills to use and reduce herself to a pickpocket. Before she could begin questioning her morals and kunoichi's honor, she was standing right before the gates. Her eyes flickered to the desk where the guards were. If they were anything like Izumo and Kotetsu, they would know every damn ninja that was currently on duty outside the village and would most certainly recognize an outsider. They would question her, even with her very noticeable red hitai-ate there to back her up.

She was in luck. They were a bit like Izumo and Kotetsu. At least when it came to taking naps when things got boring.

She raced past the gate and to the other end of the street. If they detected her, she'd already be hidden among the villagers. But when she looked back, their heads were still buried in their arms. She'd have to talk to Tsunade about that when she got home. No wonder Orochimaru had made it in so easily when he invaded.

Sakura was half-expecting somebody to come charging at her with a kunai, yelling "intruder!" She was getting a lot of curious glances. She looked down at herself. Did she really look that out of place? It must have been her hair color. It was kind of obnoxious.

Ignoring all the curious looks directed at her colorful head, Sakura's eyes offhandedly drifted toward the Hokage monument, and just like that her spirits lifted. Four faces overlooked the village, which only mean she hadn't gone back that far. Sakura smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. There was bound to be somebody she knew! At the very worst, the Fourth had just become Hokage. If that were the case, it would be even better for her. The Fourth was said to be the strongest Hokage of them all. Surely he would know how to get her home.

"Excuse me, miss."

Sakura's eyes snapped to the speaker to stare at him with guilt and anxiety. He was obviously shinobi, most likely a chunin.

"Are you from around here?"

This was it. She had been caught!

But no, that wasn't it. As her mind caught up with her Sakura realized she had been gaping at the monument for too long. No normal resident of Konoha ever paid a second thought to those rocks, and in doing so she had most likely made herself look like an outsider.

"Yes! I, uh... yes," she gave a nervous laugh, fingers tucking nonexistent loose strands of hair behind her ear. "I'm just looking for someone."

The chunin threw a look over his shoulder toward the mountain, unsure of what anyone would be doing up there.

"Well, if you're lost or anything-" he stopped mid-sentence when he realized Sakura had already scampered away.

Sakura made a beeline for the training grounds, knowing it would be less populated. She had to get away from the villagers and the nosy chunin who had only been trying to do his job. Sakura couldn't risk running into anyone who might recognize her as an outsider. Who knew what they'd do with her? Her legs automatically guided her to the training field she knew best, and the one that happened to be her first: Training Ground Three. It didn't take her long to arrive, not when she was using chakra to increase her speed. She was still feeling uncomfortable with the people who kept throwing her strange looks, but why wouldn't they when she was looking at everyone with such a guilty expression? Sakura hadn't done anything wrong, but they didn't know that.

When Sakura arrived she found that there was nobody currently using the training area, but she still felt better finding herself a nice, secluded tree branch where no one was likely to see her. She climbed up the tree and settled in as comfortably as one could on a prickly wooden surface. Sakura ran a hand tiredly through her hair, and tried to evaluate her current situation. Other than knowing she hadn't gone back too far, she hadn't the slightest idea of what year it was. It might have been a good idea to find out what date she was in when she was still in the main part of the village. It was difficult to come up with much of a plan without knowing what, or who, she had available to her. For all she knew the Kyuubi wasn't yet sealed and would attack the village in three... two...

But fortunately for her the Kyuubi was long gone, because from here she could see the memorial, and Kakashi standing right in front of it. He looked the same as ever.

Sakura jumped off the tree and charged at him full speed. If he had noticed the speeding kunoichi coming straight at him, Kakashi gave no sign of it.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Here was the answer to her getting back home, and to solving all her current problems. Kakashi would help her, she was sure of it. They were teammates after all. The man was a genius! He would know what to do. She would be back in no time.

Sakura came to an abrupt halt inches away from his body and her arm reached out to grab a fist-full of the shirt on his arm. His head turned slowly to regard her, then his gaze slid down to pointedly stare at the spot where her hand grasped his clothing. She didn't notice.

"What?" he asked, irritated.

Oh, yeah. He didn't know her. Well, that complicated things. And interrupting him in the middle of this ritual of his might not have been the most respectful of actions. But no matter. Sakura launched right into her story. It would just take a minute to make him understand.

Right?